I won't, sadly, be able to go everywhere readers are recommending: France is a big country and there simply isn't the time. But some of your suggestions sound fascinating. Nick Alexander writes in from the tiny village of Le Mas, in the Alpes Maritimes, which he justifiably describes as "a very interesting case".

The village has a gay, radical leftwing mayor, elected at the last municipal polls with what Nick recalls as being something like 95 votes out of 110 cast. In the first round of the current presidential elections the voting in Le Mas went as follows:

So a village that only recently elected a radical leftwing mayor saw fit to cast 42% of its votes for the candidate of the far-right Front National. "An interesting study in what issues people vote on, perhaps," suggests Nick. I'd say so.

In a similar vein, Charles Masters – an old friend – writes in from Champallement, in Burgundy. "I was manning the polling station here last Sunday, and am still trying to work out what the result means in terms of what's going on in people's heads," he writes. Of the 41 votes cast (out of 48 registered), 12 went to Le Pen, 12 to Hollande, eight to Sarkozy and the rest to the marginal candidates, with one vote left blank.

"So Champallement, in an area with almost zero immigration and very low crime, voted 30% for Le Pen, up from about 25% last time round," says Charles. "And this in the département where Mitterrand had his power base, and which will doubtless vote mainly Socialist in the second round."

If this is a protest vote, Charles says, "I don't really buy it. Surely, a blank vote or spoiled ballot would be more of a protest. Is it because the area is poor? Is it simply because the mainstream candidates are not very appealing?" At any rate, he says: "It's pretty weird being in a room for the count along with most of the voters, all of whom you know to some degree or other, and playing guessing games about who voted Front National. Plus 'La France aux Français', in a village that would be a field of ruins if it wasn't for the influx of foreigners who have bought homes here."